Marketing has been evolving ever since the concept of commerce was invented. From people hollering at their fruit stands to elaborate skywriting, methods to catch people’s attention have consistently improved. In our digital era, there are many platforms that businesses utilise to reach out to their audience. From videos to online articles, here are some of the mistakes that businesses make, and some content marketing tips you can use to improve your campaigns.
Videos
Mistakes in video content
Video quality
Some companies compromise on video quality due to various reasons — budget constraints, subpar equipment, or simply a lack of professionalism.
However, poor video quality may result in a lack of credibility. Even if the content is useful for your audience, they’re more likely to be turned off when the video quality is bad.
Clickbait titles
Clickbait titles may work well when you’re trying to get clicks in the short-term. But if your content doesn’t live up to the hype, your viewers might feel betrayed.
This may result in them subconsciously rejecting any content you put out in future.
Clickbait titles are the reason why the content marketing industry uses the term “Buzzfeed” as an insult.
Lacking subtitles
Some viewers may have their videos muted, or have difficulty understanding accents. In such situations, subtitles would go a long way in helping them to understand your video better.
How can you improve your videos?
Keep it short
One of the content marketing tips to follow is to be familiar with the optimal duration of videos across various channels.
For Facebook and YouTube, videos can be extended to one minute and two minutes respectively.
If you’re thinking of making money off YouTube exclusively, the sweet spot to have advertisements and sponsors is at least eight minutes. With videos of such length, you can enable ads in the middle of your videos (also known as “mid-rolls”) in addition to the start and end of it.
Not sure if you should use TikTok? Here’s why you should incorporate it in your campaign.
Ensure optimal video quality
Hire an in-house videographer and editor to ensure your videos are of the best possible quality. If your company just wants to film the occasional video, consider hiring a freelancer. Some freelancers can produce decent video content at fairly affordable fees.
While video marketing can help to increase your organic reach, you can consider dropping it if your budget is tight. Forgoing video is safer than risking your company’s credibility with a bad video.
Blogs
Mistakes in blog content
Language comprehensiveness
Blog articles are written to be readable by the common man. If your article requires a PhD in Literature and a thesaurus to understand, even the most compelling topic won’t capture their attention.
Tone of voice
Without a prominent tone of voice, you won’t be able to distinguish yourself from your competitors. It’s so important that brands such as Burger King and Wendy’s focus so much on their brand voices as a means of standing out on social media.
Learn more about how brand voice can help with your content marketing.
How can you improve your blog?
Increase readability
One way to do this is to use simple and concise words. Avoid using jargons unless necessary. Alternatively, replace jargons with phrases that convey a similar meaning.
Another content marketing tip to follow is to read your writing out loud. If you have problems digesting what you’ve written, then you probably need to reduce the complexity of your content.
Use SEO keywords
Using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) keywords can improve the search ranking and findability of your content. Programmes such as Google Ads or Wordtracker Scout can help you to source for the most commonly used keywords.
Learn more about some SEO best practices to use to boost your rankings.
Social media
Mistakes in social media content
Unengaging posts
Social media is used as a way of reaching out to consumers, but it’s important to give your consumers a way of reaching back out to you. Your posts should encourage your readers to either “like”, “comment”, or “share” them. Otherwise it’s just you shouting into the void.
Irregular updates
People use social media almost every day. If your company doesn’t update social media on a regular basis, it will result in a decreased organic reach.
How can you improve your social media content?
Uploading at optimal timings
Some people check Facebook as if it were their morning newspaper. Others may use Instagram during lunch, or after work.
Different platforms have different optimal timings to reach the most audience, and capitalising on these timings can help to drastically increase your organic reach.
For example, the best times to post on Twitter is on Wednesdays and Fridays at 9am. On the other hand, Instagram receives the most engagement on Wednesdays at 11 am and Fridays from 10am to 11am.
Use relevant hashtags
Apart from posting at the right time, another content marketing tip to increase your social media outreach by creating relevant and unique hashtags for your brand.
Searching up #fashion on Instagram pulls up over 800 million tagged posts. This means that if you’re a fashion company using this hashtag, you’ll probably not get found.
Your audience is also more likely to use specific hashtags to narrow down their search results. So most brands usually use their own unique hashtag, such as #LOrealParis.
Infographics
Mistakes in infographic content
Visual clutter
Keep in mind that infographics are meant to enhance your reading experience. Infographics with excessive written content or complicated icons will hamper its own readability.
Excessive use of infographics
Take advantage of infographics, but don’t overuse them. Infographics are handy for compressing data-heavy articles and long lists, but it can get taxing when they keep breaking up your reading experience.
How can you improve your infographics?
Understanding design elements
Learning the basic elements of design can help you create simple infographics. You can also read up on how certain visuals may affect the way your audience feel, think, and act.
Make use of infographic design tools
Here’s another one of content marketing tips to follow: leverage easy-to-use design tools such as Canva and Infogram to make your infographics.
These tools are especially useful if you’re not a designer or don’t have the time to learn how to use Illustrator.
And if you need icons, you can get them from The Noun Project, which offers free and useable icons to include in your infographics.